A baby and beyond
by FrazzledWriter7
Summary: Jimmy and Steph's new baby has arrived and Jimmy has a plan up his sleeve. How will they venture into the new role as first time parents. Based loosely on the Season 4 finale.
1. Chapter 1

Steph's POV

I just couldn't stop staring at her. My daughter. My little girl. Jimmy is gently rubbing a hand up and down my arm.

"She's perfect babe," Jimmy whispers in my ear.

I look over my shoulder and see that he's holding back tears.

"Mmm-hmm," I mutter.

DJ, Kimmy, and Fernando all watch from a distance.

"So what is my little niece's name," DJ asks.

"Oh no, we didn't think of a name," Jimmy says.

"That's ok honey. We have time," I assure him.

"Yeah," he says taking my hand in his and walking away from the hospital bed when Kimmy is recovering.

"We might not know our daughter's name but I do know something," Jimmy says.

I rock our little girl gently with one arm. "What's going on babe?"

Jimmy glances past us briefly. "Steph. I love you. And our little girl. I always will."

He pauses to run his thumb in the palm of my hand.

I look down at our little girl and smile. When I look back, Jimmy is down on one knee. I gasp along with everyone behind me.

"Stephanie Judith Tanner. I can't think of any other way to complete our family. Will you make me the happiest man in the world and be my wife? Will you marry me?"

Our baby girl stirs in my arms. I look at the ring, and Jimmy, and our daughter.

I feel a tear fall. "Yes," I croak out. "Yes." I nod my head.

The smile that spreads across Jimmy's face melts my heart. He slips the ring on my finger.

"I love you," I say before carefully kissing him with our daughter between us.

"My lil sis is getting married," DJ says hugging me from behind. "And I have a niece."

I hand the baby to Jimmy. "Say hi your daddy."

Jimmy's POV

I take my little girl from Steph and give them each a kiss on the head.

Kimmy waves me and baby girl over.

"Kimmy. I'm a dad," I say sitting beside her on the bed.

"And you asked Stephanie to marry you!"

I feel heat rising in my cheeks. "Yeah. I even asked Mr. T first."

"You asked my Dad?" Steph asks sitting beside me.

"Of course I did, babe," I say rocking the baby gently.

"I'm so happy for you guys," DJ says. She checks her phone. "I'm going to see if you can have the kids cone in. They keep texting me. They want to meet their cousin."

Steph leans her head again mine and plays with our baby girl's fingers.

The kids aren't allowed into the room and Kimmy and Steph are emotionally drained.

"Why don't you and Kimmy get some rest. I'll bring your go-bags back."

Steph smiles, kisses me on the cheek and takes our little girl from me. "Thanks honey."

As DJ gets up to tell the kids, I grab her arm. "Don't tell them that I asked Steph to marry me. I want it to be a surprise."

Steph's ring sparkles as she places baby girl in her little bed to sleep. I give her one more kiss and give my sister a hug before I hit the lights and close the door.


	2. Chapter 2

Stephanie's POV

When I wake up, Kimmy is pacing back and forth at the end of the hospital bed.

I stretch and sit up when I don't see my baby girl in her bed.

"Hey Kimmy, where's the baby? Oh no someone took her."

"Relax Steph. She's right here," Jimmy says from the corner of the room.

I smile at them and walk to their side. "Hey babe."

Jimmy kisses me on the forehead. "She's perfect Steph."

I lean my head on his and lock eyes with our little girl. She's got her daddy's eyes. Deep pools of chocolate brown.

We're both so focused on her that we don't see the nurse standing quietly by the door or notice that Kimmy left.

The nurse clears her throat. I nudge Jimmy.

"Hi, I'm Sara and I just came by to give some advice to the new parents. We do this for all our surrogate families." She walks over to us. "Do you have a name picked out for this little one?"

Jimmy and I both look at each other.

"We haven't picked one yet. She kind of surprised us," Jimmy says before I can get a word in.

Sara chuckles. "Maybe this next tip will help." She gestures for the baby, which Jimmy hands over.

"We encourage mommy, daddy, baby bonding time with all our surrogates. Most couples come up with a name during this time."

"I think I've heard of this," I say rubbing a hands in circles in Jimmy's back.

"What is it?" Jimmy asks.

"If you are comfortable Stephanie, I'm going to have you and your husband switch places," Sara gestures.

"Ohh, we aren't married yet. Just engaged," I tell her while sitting in the chair with Jimmy standing behind me.

"Oh congratulations. Well Stephanie since you did not carry your baby having skin to skin contact is important. If you don't mind I'm going to unswaddle this little one and I want you to place her on your bare chest."

I untie the top of my top so it falls open and Jimmy places our daughter on my chest.

"Oh she's so warm and tiny," I say, nestling her head.

Sara smiles. "We encourage this from both mama and daddy. It creates a physical bond between you and baby. I've heard most couples choose to do this in the privacy of their own homes, where it is quiet and you can each hold her and bond."

I like the sound of this.

"Do you plan to breastfeed or bottle feed?" Sara asks.

Jimmy and I look at each other. Wow we hadn't talked about a lot.

"Bottle feed," we said at the same time.

"But I will be pumping. So she's getting my milk," I say.

"Perfect. I'll leave you two alone for now. One of you can press the assist button once she's asleep and we'll go over the car seat test which determines when she can go home," Sara says. She leaves the room quietly.

Not shortly after Sara left, baby girl fell asleep.

**********************a few hours later**********************

Jimmy's POV

After not passing the car seat test, the doctors and nurses suggest that baby girl stay overnight to be monitored.

"It's just a precaution," nurse Sara says. "We monitor all babies who don't pass the car seat test."

"Jimmy and I, we don't live super close," Steph says. I can see the worry building up inside her.

I stand behind her and rub a calming hand on her back.

Sara eyes us up and down and then leans over to the doctor, who then looks us up and down.

"I see you two are engaged, congratulations," Our doctor says.

Steph relaxes and leans into me. She nods.

"There is a hotel across the street and they run specials for us here at the hospital. We would like to offer you the babymoon get away special. Enjoy one romantic evening away, because tomorrow when your little one does get to come home, your lives nights in won't look the same," the doctor says.

"Are you sure?" Steph asks.

"Yeah. Are you sure?" I ask, though a little romance with Steph sounds amazing.

"Absolutely! It's already called in. Go enjoy your evening alone," Sara says.

We each give baby girl a kiss on the head and I gently wrap an arm around Steph to go tell the family our plan and send them home.

TO

BE

CONTINUED


End file.
